Spearfishing Regulations in Natal

The Marine Living Resources act of 1998 and the regulation gazette No6284
that goes with the act are the relevant documents to get should you like
to study them in full. There are going to be some amendments made to them
this year, mainly regarding size limits and a quota drop on certain species.

The main thrust of the new act was that everyone taking something from
the sea would now need a permit to do so. Previously fishermen were excluded
from the permit system. The regulations to the act contain all the important
restrictions like size limits and bag limits.

The big change as regards the east coast rock lobster was that soft shell
was no longer allowable. This occurs when the lobster sheds its shell to
grow. The old act allowed a soft shell rock lobster to be caught in Kwazulu
Natal but not in the Cape. The reason behind this was that the Cape rock
lobster, which is a different species from the Natal, are generally found
amongst the kelp and are less likely to be damaged when being caught. The
Natal rock lobster hides in cracks and crevices and are generally difficult
to get out and are normally minus a few legs before you can get them out
of the hole they were wedged in. I think the change is fair as soft shell
rock lobster do not mingle with hard shell as this would damage them, and
they are always found hiding alone until their shell hardens. They are normally
very easy to catch in this state.

There were big changes to the spearfishing restrictions for the Kwazulu
Natal divers aswell. Previously Kwazulu Natal fell under the Natal Parks
Board and was goverened by their rules. The Natal Parks Board was done away
with and became Nature Conservation Services. The control of the sea then
fell to the Sea Fisheries which is a national body. This meant that the
2kg minimum mass limit for speared fish in Kwazulu Natal fell away and the
national size restrictions came in to play.

These have not been enacted yet but will be confirmed or not as soon as
this happens. It is interesting to note that there are a lot of fish excluded
from these annexures. To name some, spade fish, rubber lip, goat fish, chub,
parrot fish, surgeon, tripletail, flathead, queenfish, sea pike, prodigal
son, rainbow runner, indian mirror fish, threadfin mirror fish, wahoo.

The old regulations had a note saying `and any other fish not listed in
the above list` for the exploitable list,(annexure8). It could be a mistake
or there is some amendment that covers this. I have tried to get clarification
on this but get differing answers depending on who you talk to. If anyone
has the answer to this, let me know.